Delegate: Western Va. needed to ‘cut the knot’ with state

April 30, 2013

Editor's Note: "Countdown to Statehood" is a weekly series highlighting the historical events that eventually led to West Virginia becoming a state on June 20, 1863. This article is the 18th in the series.

The ongoing war and the political upheaval caused by the secession of Virginia and the formation of the Restored or Reorganized Government of Virginia were already causing additional problems between the eastern and western sections.

Recently, Virginia had stopped work on the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston in Lewis County in western Virginia. At the same time, the government of Virginia cancelled a loan for West Liberty Academy in Ohio County. This troubled the new legislature seated in Wheeling. Both of those counties were loyal to the new government. The new government reacted by seizing $27,000 in gold belonging to the Commonwealth of Virginia from the Weston bank that was to fund the projects.

Article Photos

In the July legislative session of the new government, the representatives elected John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willey to replace U. S. Senators R.M.T. Hunter and James M. Mason, Virginia Senators who had resigned when Virginia seceded. The two new U.S. Senators were appointed to fill those vacated seats. Kellian V. Whaley, William G. Brown and Jacob B. Blair elected as members of the U. S. House of Representatives to the 37th Congress.

Congress re-confirmed the recognition as the Restored or Reorganized Government of Wheeling, Virginia as the House of Representatives accepted the new members on July 4. Nine days later the new Senators were also officially received.

In President Abraham Lincoln's message to Congress, delivered on July 4, the president said "the people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders; and this government has no choice left but to deal with it, where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as the loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. These loyal citizens and this government are bound to recognize and protect as being Virginia."

The Second Wheeling Convention met on Aug. 6, 1861, following a six-week adjournment. Among the most pressing business of the delegates was the distancing of themselves from the former state of Virginia, both symbolically and legally. They voted to render null and void every resolution approved by the Virginian Secession Convention. And then they took on the statehood debate in earnest.

While many delegates were unsure of the proper path to take, John Carlile was not among them. He told his colleagues that they needed to "Cut the knot now!" He argued that regardless of the outcome of the war, western Virginia needed to take care of its future. He reminded them that eastern Virginia had always treated the western counties with disdain and had discriminated against them for as far back as the founding of the country in 1776.

Although still unable to reach agreement on many issues facing the convention, the delegates agreed that whatever action taken, including the writing of a new constitution, would have to be sent to the voters for ratification. The creation of a new state remained a central issue. They decided to authorize a Constitutional Convention, to which delegates would be elected on Oct. 24, 1861.